[QUOTE=LTRS]The mentality these days is work 30 or 40 yrs, then go into a corner and die. QUOTE]

Too bad you have such a low opinion of the average American, basically saying they're too dumb and lazy to do anything but work at a Wal-Mart.

The average American doesn't think that way at all. You really ought to get out more. Americans are generally not as bleak, negative and self-important as you seem to be.

St. Paul, Minn. � Northwest CEO Richard Anderson and President Doug Steenland received bonuses totalling a combined $450,000 last year. They received no increases in their $500,000 salaries, and no bonuses the prior year. Other compensation, including stock that can't be sold for years, boosted their total compensation nearly $2 million compared to the year before.

Over two years, the company has lost $1.2 billion and cut about 17,000 jobs. It's also asking unions for permanent cost reductions.



A mechanic's lament.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty criticized the executive pay increases at a meeting for Northwest employees facing layoffs organized by the state Dislocated Worker Program.

"I do think it's unfair for Northwest Airlines or other businesses who are laying off people and asking employees to take wage concessions to be giving their top management big raises and bonuses, so I don't think they should do it in the first place. And if they're willing to contribute it to dislocated workers program, that'd be great," Pawlenty said.

The Eagan Republican says he plans to tell the Northwest executives it would be a nice gesture to reject the increases. Minnesota House Democrats and union officials urged the executives to donate $2 million to the state's dislocated worker program, which is short on cash.

Ken Hooker, president of IAM local 1833, which represents 7,000 Northwest ground workers in Minnesota blasted the bonuses at a time when he says many members face hardship.

"These bonuses, which they think they deserve, is no more, really, than taking care of themselves. There's supposed to be performance. Where's the performance?" Hooker asked.

Northwest officials say performance pay is necessary to attract and retain the best management team. They say Anderson's pay is well below the roughly $12 to $13 million in compensation paid to the CEOs of Delta and Continental airlines, the next largest and next smallest airlines.

They also say Anderson is paid less than the CEOs at bankrupt United Airlines and US Airways.

But the payments provoked angry responses from laid-off Northwest workers at the displaced worker program meeting.

Mechanic Mike Tschida urged state officials to do something about the pay package. "You can't let somebody that's got that much control over our community be that brutal. It's just not right. It's just not right to let them pack money into their pockets. We've got people that are over... they've been pulled away from their jobs to go fight the war, and they're going to come back to no job."

Chris Farran and two other mechanics just drove back from the East Coast, where they found out they'd been laid off. They've been living out of suitcases in cities from Minneapolis to Boston, moving to keep their jobs as mechanics are laid off. Farran and his friend Nathan Caroland -- each with three kids -- say the prospects of finding similar work are "dismal."

"It looks pretty tough. Everything's flat-lining right now and everybody's holding off on hiring until the war situation is settled," Farran said.

"I mean there's nothing here at all for us," Caroland echoed. "I mean we just all got out of making $35 an hour. There's nothing in this industry that we can pick up doing whatsoever."

Caroland says he got into the airline industry after a previous career in computers.

"Now the airlines have gone downhill for me. So now I've gone through two industries that have completely fallen out of the sky. About the only thing I can think of is medicine these days. There's always somebody needing some help somehow. As kookie as it sounds, I'm going to end up a nurse probably, or something along those lines. You know, here I am wrenching away, or messing around on the computer, but now here I am going to be changing bed pans and sheets, because there's nothing else out there," he said.

State officials say the number of layoffs for which the state has received formal notification from Northwest has crept up by another 33 to a total of 2023.

Back to the subject at hand...I don't think this is the beginning of the end. I think NW should do Chapter 11, jettison the mechanics, and make a go of it (even if the future involves a merger with DL, the other airline that can't seem to get it's act together).

I don't think the strike will sink NWA...that said should term I avoided some bookings LGA-MLU (Monroe, LA) just because I couldn't afford having irregular ops...hopefully this issue will go away soon.

Every time I feel badly about calling these morons a bunch of grunting APES, I hear yet another story like this. Intimidate, intimidate, intimidate BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST NOT SMART ENOUGH TO THINK YOUR WAY OUT OF A JAM. "Unga-bunga, me make scab life into hell, union like me"

This is EXACTLY WHY the union movement in this country is dying. 20% of the workforce in 1990, 12 percent today? I WONDER WHY!!!

My wife and I run a small business. When times are tough, we cut our salaries. We pay our employees healthcare by keeping our salaries low.
When we started the business (4 years ago) we could have had a pension or 401K program. We decided that it was madness to go the pension route. That would mean we could predict the next 40 or so years and what the economic conditions would be during and at the end of this time. This is, onmce again, madness. Of course we chose the 401K. We match the first 3% of each employee's contribution with 6% from the company. And they are happy.

Pensions are going the way of the dodo bird. And soon.

I guess that will work out fine for all of us if we only need to go the 40 or 50 places these airlines serve, huh?

Agreed

There isn't a car in this country made from 100% US parts. Mostly because of the exact same union busting your are advocating here. You really need to educate yourself.

And AA and CO. They turned profits last quarter.

Can you please give a date to that article that you keep quoting as "proof." I believe there was an increase sometime in 2002 ("management retention bonuses"), but in this round of cuts, the pilots agreed to cuts as did salaried employees (which includes management).

And as a business owner, surely you understand the concepts of marginal costs and fixed costs. In the airline business, fixed costs are huge (you still pay your workers if you don't fly, you have gate rentals, planes, etc.) while variable costs are virtually zero. A profit maximizing business will price their product so that their marginal revenue exactly equals their marginal costs. Regardless of that, if your fixed cost structure is too high, you can still get your shorts handed to you. If NW had the exact same labor cost structure as CO or AA (the two of the big 6 who made money), NW would have also been in the black (or very close to it).

Oh, and I think you should cross Target off your list too. I used to work there in my teens. At one point, a union was trying to organize us, and they squashed that idea like a bug...

I think the Union and NW Management kind of deserve each other. Even though I feel bad for all the families and travelers affected at the same time...

a little mean-spirited... but damn funny!!!

EXCUSE ME? Where the hell did I say anything even remotely like that? It's not the workers who are the problem -- it is the short sighted consumers who doesn't realize they are shafting themselves by shopping at places like Walmart, or, in this case, continuing to patronize an airline who wants workers to take cut after cut while paying management outrageous salaries and bonuses for making stupid business decisions.

When management agrees to the exact same cuts as they are asking of their mechanics or settles with them I will consider flying NW again. The mechanics HAVE agreed to cuts, btw, as they did in the last contract round when NW execs were at the same time, busily padding their own paychecks with raises and bonuses (with taxpayer money, I might add).

But like the lemmings that US consumers are, they say, hey, that's okay. You can use my tax dollars to build that 3rd vacation home on Aspen.

It's ridiculous. Fire the execs and find some that realize that you can't charge less for a service than it costs to provide it. The financial troubles with airline companies will go away immediately.

BTW, you haven't stated which carrier you will be supporting now that you left NW.

So.....?